A stressed-out Boston mother recently decided that the best way to handle her young son's non-stop videogaming was to call 911 on him.

When Angela Mejia woke up at 2:30 in the morning last Saturday and realized her 14-year-old son was playing videogames in his bedroom despite being told to go to sleep, she marched into his room and unplugged his console. Then, as the inevitable argument ensued, she took matters to the next level: She called 911.

"I have support from my church, but I'm alone," she told the Boston Herald. "I want to help my son, but I can't find a way."

He had apparently been playing Grand Theft Auto, an "exceedingly violent" game that Mejia said she strongly disapproved of. "I would never buy that kind of video. No way," she said. "I called [the police] because if you don't respect your mother, what are you going to do in your life?"

Police responded to the scene and were apparently able to talk her son into turning off his PlayStation and going to sleep". "They were just like, 'Chill out. Go to bed'," the boy said.

"Clearly, it's a very, very rare situation for someone to call the cops," said Grand Theft Childhood author Lawrence Kutner. "That she went to the extreme of calling the police tells me more about her level of frustration than anything else."

As a parent, I can only imagine what kind of little shit this kid must be and what he puts his poor mother through. She needs to mom up, and give the damn console away to someone, but if she has this much trouble disciplining her son maybe if she did that the kid would go psycho on her. She's probably afraid of him to some degree to let him walk all over her like that.

Also, from the looks of the story, she's a single mom. This kid is just a brat, too bad the cops couldn't take him away for a bit.

Flos:Now, y'see, she should have just picked up the console and thrown it out the window.

That's parenting.

That's what my mother would have done. They didn't really care what kind of games I was playing, but if I was THAT impertinent, disobedient and disrespectful my game system would have been out the door in a flash.

sounds like my grandma, good thing the rest of my family realizes she's crazy (not because she's religious it's other reasons)

I really think it depends on the marathon of gaming that the kid did.

4 hours? 6? 8? if he went past his bedtime by a half hour I really think the mother needs to cool her jets. If he's day and night for a day then we have a problem.

Oh and that thing about calling the cops? yeah it's obvious there's family issue's going on as well, of course a probable 40 year old mother going through her mid life crisis calling the cops on her 14 year old son who wanted to see how far he could push her doesn't really seem like headlines to me, maybe the video games might make people act up but I believe video games can be subsituted by alot of things and make the same story

You don't call the police because your kid doesn't listen to you.You tell the brat to shut the fuck up and go to bed or he won't play that fucking game for the rest of his pathetic, pointless, futile and generally unwanted life.And then you teach your kid to be a dog.Yeah...

Anyway, she says she's got the support of the church. Somehow this makes me think "ooh, well that explains it".

What an idiot. Seriously. Does this woman not realise the concept of an emergency number? And they're just going to end up pinning the blame on the game, I just know they are, rather than where it belongs (i.e, on the idiot that doesn't know how to parent properly).

I can understand getting angry over your kid playing games well into the night and early into the morning but to have to call the police in order to enforce your rules is a sign of terrible parenting, in my opinion(Wouldn't know, I don't have kids).

It's not as big of a deal as she's making it into, though. Having the support of your local church forces me to assume one of two things.

1) You're a fundie whackjob.2) You know very little about games other than that which your church tells you(Which may tie into number one).

Wow, poor parenting FTL. Seriously, if you don't approve of the game just give it away or take it to EB. Most 14 year olds argue about anything and this was just a major overreaction. I'm sure the police were glad to be called over an emergency line to make a 14 year old go to be (sarcasm woo!). Games do not make children violent if that's what she's afraid of (I'm the world's biggest pacifist and I love to shoot the hell out of zombies and did like the first GTA.) And if my single mom can make my cousin and brother listen (both very stubborn males like the kid in this story), this mom could. It sounds like she needs some major parenting help, not the kid.

chronobreak:As a parent, I can only imagine what kind of little shit this kid must be and what he puts his poor mother through. She needs to mom up, and give the damn console away to someone, but if she has this much trouble disciplining her son maybe if she did that the kid would go psycho on her. She's probably afraid of him to some degree to let him walk all over her like that.

Also, from the looks of the story, she's a single mom. This kid is just a brat, too bad the cops couldn't take him away for a bit.

WoaWoa, geese, he was playing a little past bed time, over Winter break from school. No damage done. I don't condone not listening to your mom, but to call the police for this? She's lucky she didn't get a fine for this trivial matter. And giving the console away? Really? And walking all over her? If she let him walk all over her, she wouldn't have called the police. Clearly the mom is the one with more issues then the kid. Ya know what I got into a fight about with my mom the other day? The sink not working. Kids have a sense of rebellion and will argue about the color of the sky if their parents say anything about it. This isn't new AT ALL.

I can see the afraid of him, as she did resort to ACTUALLY calling the police, but that's from frivolous mass hysteria created by the media about "Kids being in murder simulators, OOOOOOHHHH"

chronobreak:As a parent, I can only imagine what kind of little shit this kid must be and what he puts his poor mother through. She needs to mom up, and give the damn console away to someone, but if she has this much trouble disciplining her son maybe if she did that the kid would go psycho on her. She's probably afraid of him to some degree to let him walk all over her like that.

Also, from the looks of the story, she's a single mom. This kid is just a brat, too bad the cops couldn't take him away for a bit.

Really? That's the conclusion you got from this post? I immediately though that she must be a religious nutjob who shouldn't be allowed to have children.

Seriously, your kid stays up a little late and you call the police? I can't even imagine what was going through her messed-up head.

Sounds like this lady has "Soccer Mom" written all over her. I'm sure the kid was being a prick as well but it sounds like neither of these idiots could calmly come to a solution. The cops actually responded to this shit? Your tax dollars at work.

'A teenager? Arguing with his own parent? This sounds like something only the police could handle!'

Seriously, what was she thinking? This reminds me of something I read about a couple of years ago. A mum tried to have her son arrested, because he opened one of his own christmas presents (a GBA) before christmas.

Why does shit like that never happen in my country. And we have no laws or censorship when it comes to video games. Im serious 12-13 year old children play GTA in computer clubs or buy it in stores with NO PROBLEM. Sometimes it pays to live in a country with bigger problems than violence in video games

14 year old kid shouldn't have been playing Grand Theft Auto in the first place. If I'd been her, that console and game would have been on eBay so fast. Yeah, I play games a lot, but when I was that age, if I was told to take a break or stop playing I'd save my game and do it without question, knowing that I'd be able to carry on playing at another time.

In summary, the kid's a little shit, and the mother should know how to discipline him better.

The fact that she let her kid play GTA IV in the first place speaks volumes. I'm really not surprised that if she is such a bad parent that she lets her kid play a game she so strongly disapproves of, that she is also such a poor parent that she has to call the cops to handle a misbehaving child. Of course its also possible that the kid has behavioral problems, but in that case, DON'T BUY THE KID THE GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE! Come on. The games name is a felony. If you can't figure out that this is something inappropriate for children, then you should not be having kids.

This is why I am a huge fan of that site linked a while ago, Common Sense Media. Sure, sometimes they have no idea what there talking about as gamers, they do make it a bit obvious that the writers don't go home and play a round of Modern Warfare, but they certainly have a mission statement of being a comprehensive, unbiased evaluation tool for informing parents on how to help there kids have a positive, appropriate experience with video games. Really, if Common Sense Media became a household name, every parent would have to STFU about video games being evil.